Magnificent mushrooms

Mycoflora

Mushrooms are not plants but fungi. The largest part of them, the mycelium, is something you hardly ever see. It consists of fungal threads and is found under the ground, in wood, or between dead leaves. When a humid period immediately follows a warm period, the fungus produces fruiting bodies. We all know them: they consist of a hat on a stalk. 

Due to the diversity of trees and shrubs in the Botanic Garden, a very wide variety of mushrooms grow here. The Botanic Garden is one of the richest sites for mushrooms not only in Belgium but in Europe too. More than 750 different species can be found in the estate, some of them very rare. The faux royal boletus and the ruby boletus can only be found in Belgium in the Botanic Garden.